


Details and the Big Picture

by saintvic



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-26
Updated: 2010-10-26
Packaged: 2017-10-12 21:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintvic/pseuds/saintvic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gene was a big picture man, a man with certain routines until...............small hint of Sam/Gene, mostly gen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Details and the Big Picture

Gene had always been a big picture man. All that mattered to him was that the criminals got banged up and that the streets were safer. Years of experience, of understanding how his city worked served him well, and it was alright to do whatever it took to put the cons away. Cause they were scumbags. And the faster you put 'em away the faster you could move on to the next deserving scroat that dared cross the Gene Genie's path.

Gene also knew that his days fell into certain routines. He caught bad guys, drank in the Arms, played darts and won at poker, hated drugs and the wankers that dealt them, watched the match when he had the chance, expected and had the unwavering loyalty of his men, shagged the missus and eyed up any likely looking birds, thought Litton and the Super were both prats, and went back to catching the villains again.

And this was fine. When push came to shove he knew that what he said went. His team knew that this was an unchangeable, written in stone, commandment. And this meant little challenged him or changed the routine. So his days revolved around these habits, uninterrupted and comfortable. A strange kind of stability that reigned until Sam, I've got a stick up my jacksie, Tyler was transferred in as his new DI.

Since that bloody day, when Tyler had wandered in, spouting utter shite, things had changed. The balance of Gene's work, his life, had shifted. He worked on bringing Tyler round to his way of doing things and at times the skinny sod seemed to unbend. Of course Tyler would often revert to being an stuck up, pig headed, looney tune. But, after a while, there were definite signs that the man was a copper that could be trusted, a man you could drink with, and, perhaps, a partner.

But for all that, the influencing seemed to go the other way as well. There were times when Gene had to admit, if only very quickly to himself that Sam was right about some things. And even bloody thinking that caused Gene to reach for one of his flasks in an attempt to drown the thought before it fully formed.

Tyler had introduced things like going undercover and using "surveillance". Not that these were proper policeman's work but they had their place. Having to protect witnesses was fine as well as long as Gene could pass it off to someone else on the team. Hell even the gay boy science stuff had it's uses. It served to make Gene realise that the details could be important. Things he would never have really given the time of day to before were now the very things that preyed on his mind whether he fuckin wanted them to or not.

Looking at the angle of a wound, making sure to check times on alibis, watching how close Sam and that plonk were sitting to one another, the smell in the alley when staggering home on a Friday night, counting the increasing number of forms flitting their way onto his desk (and didn't he know who to blame for them), catching the look in Chris' eye when he was called a div one too many times, the magnified weight of a gun in his hand, the surprising lift of a smile, watching the sweat bead its way down a suspect's brow, and so it went on. All the details imprinting themselves in his mind.

Catching and banging up the scum currently walking the streets was still his life but the routines had shifted. The comfortable, unchanging state of Gene's life had been shattered. New patterns were emerging and the old ones were altering. Sam had imprinted himself on all parts of Gene's existence from: who he worked with, how he caught criminals, what he did outside of work, and he had even given his scarred, weary, worn down conscience a chance to come out of hiding. And when you put all the details together Gene knew his life was never going back to how it was before Tyler arrived.


End file.
